The Last Gwaciaw Maximum (LGM) was de most recent time during de Last Gwaciaw Period dat ice sheets were at deir greatest extent.
Vast ice sheets covered much of Norf America, Nordern Europe, and Asia and profoundwy affected Earf's cwimate by causing drought, desertification, and a warge drop in sea wevews.[1]
The ice sheets reached deir maximum coverage about 26,500 years ago (26.5 ka BP). Degwaciation commenced in de Nordern Hemisphere at approximatewy 19 ka and in Antarctica approximatewy at 14.5 ka, consistent wif evidence for an abrupt rise in de sea wevew at about 14.5 ka.[2][3]

According to Bwue Marbwe 3000 (a video by de Zurich University of Appwied Sciences), de average gwobaw temperature around 19,000 BC (about 21,000 years ago) was 9.0 °C (48.2 °F).[7] This is about 6.0 °C (10.8°F) cowder dan de 2013-2017 average.

According to de United States Geowogicaw Survey (USGS), permanent summer ice covered about 8% of Earf's surface and 25% of de wand area during de wast gwaciaw maximum.[8] The USGS awso states dat sea wevew was about 125 meters (410 feet) wower dan in present times (2012).[8]

When comparing to de present, de average gwobaw temperature was 15.0 °C (58.9 °F) for de 2013-2017 period.[9] Currentwy (as of 2012), about 3.1% of Earf's surface and 10.7% of de wand area is covered in year-round ice.[8]

The formation of an ice sheet or ice cap reqwires bof prowonged cowd and precipitation (snow). Hence, despite having temperatures simiwar to dose of gwaciated areas in Norf America and Europe, East Asia remained ungwaciated except at higher ewevations. This difference was because de ice sheets in Europe produced extensive anticycwones above dem.

These anticycwones generated air masses dat were so dry on reaching Siberia and Manchuria dat precipitation sufficient for de formation of gwaciers couwd never occur (except in Kamchatka where dese westerwy winds wifted moisture from de Sea of Japan). The rewative warmf of de Pacific Ocean due to de shutting down of de Oyashio Current and de presence of warge 'east-west' mountain ranges were secondary factors preventing continentaw gwaciation in Asia.

Aww over de worwd, cwimates at de Last Gwaciaw Maximum were coower and awmost everywhere drier. In extreme cases, such as Souf Austrawia and de Sahew, rainfaww couwd be diminished by up to 90% from present, wif fworae diminished to awmost de same degree as in gwaciated areas of Europe and Norf America. Even in wess affected regions, rainforest cover was greatwy diminished, especiawwy in West Africa where a few refugia were surrounded by tropicaw grasswands.

The Amazon rainforest was spwit into two warge bwocks by extensive savanna, and de tropicaw rainforests of Soudeast Asia probabwy were simiwarwy affected, wif deciduous forests expanding in deir pwace except on de east and west extremities of de Sundawand shewf. Onwy in Centraw America and de Chocó region of Cowombia did tropicaw rainforests remain substantiawwy intact – probabwy due to de extraordinariwy heavy rainfaww of dese regions.

In de period before de Last Gwaciaw Maximum, many areas dat became compwetewy barren desert were wetter dan dey are today, notabwy in soudern Austrawia, where Aboriginaw occupation is bewieved to coincide wif a wet period between 40,000 and 60,000 years Before Present (BP, a formaw measurement of uncawibrated radiocarbon years, counted from 1950 CE).

During de Last Gwaciaw Maximum, much of de worwd was cowd, dry, and inhospitabwe, wif freqwent storms and a dust-waden atmosphere. The dustiness of de atmosphere is a prominent feature in ice cores; dust wevews were as much as 20 to 25 times greater dan now.[10] This was probabwy due to a number of factors: reduced vegetation, stronger gwobaw winds, and wess precipitation to cwear dust from de atmosphere.[10] The massive sheets of ice wocked away water, wowering de sea wevew, exposing continentaw shewves, joining wand masses togeder, and creating extensive coastaw pwains.[11] During de wast gwaciaw maximum, 21,000 years ago, de sea wevew was about 125 meters (about 410 feet) wower dan it is today.[12]

In nordwestern Russia de Fennoscandian Ice Sheet reached its LGM extent 17 ka BP, five dousand years water dan in Denmark, Germany and Western Powand. Outside de Bawtic Shiewd, and in Russia in particuwar, de LGM ice margin of de Fennoscandian Ice Sheet was highwy wobate. The main LGM wobes of Russia fowwowed de Dvina, Vowogda and Rybinsk basins respectivewy. Lobes originated as resuwt of ice fowwowing shawwow topographic depressions fiwwed wif a soft sediment substrate.[14]

There were ice sheets in modern Tibet (awdough scientists continue to debate de extent to which de Tibetan Pwateau was covered wif ice) as weww as in Bawtistan and Ladakh. In Soudeast Asia, many smawwer mountain gwaciers formed, and permafrost covered Asia as far souf as Beijing. Because of wowered sea wevews, many of today's iswands were joined to de continents: de Indonesian iswands as far east as Borneo and Bawi were connected to de Asian continent in a wandmass cawwed Sundawand. Pawawan was awso part of Sundawand, whiwe de rest of de Phiwippine Iswands formed one warge iswand separated from de continent onwy by de Sibutu Passage and de Mindoro Strait.[16]

Badymetric data suggests dere were two pawaeo-basins in de Persian Guwf. The centraw basin may have approached an area of 20,000 km2, comparabwe at its fuwwest extent to wakes such as Lake Mawawi in Africa. Between 12,000 and 9000 years ago much of de Guwf fwoor wouwd have remained exposed, onwy being fwooded by de sea after 8,000 years ago.[17]

It is estimated dat annuaw average temperatures in Soudern Africa were 6 °C wower dan at present during de Last Gwaciaw Maximum. This awone wouwd however not have been enough to create a widespread gwaciation or permafrost in de Drakensberg Mountains or de Lesodo Highwands.[18] Seasonaw freezing of de ground in de Lesodo Highwands might have reached depds of 2 meter or more bewow de surface.[19] A few smaww gwaciers did however devewop during de Last Gwaciaw Maximum, in particuwar in souf-facing swopes.[18] In de Hex River Mountains, in de Western Cape, bwock streams and terraces found near de summit of Matroosberg evidences past perigwaciaw activity which wikewy occurred during de Last Gwaciaw Maximum.[20]

The Austrawian mainwand, New Guinea, Tasmania and many smawwer iswands comprised a singwe wand mass. This continent is now referred to sometimes as Sahuw.

Between Sahuw and Sundawand – a peninsuwa of Souf East Asia dat comprised present-day Mawaysia and western and nordern Indonesia – dere remained an archipewago of iswands known as Wawwacea. The water gaps between dese iswands, Sahuw and Sundawand were considerabwy narrower and fewer in number.

The two main iswands of New Zeawand, awong wif associated smawwer iswands, were joined as one wandmass. Virtuawwy aww of de Soudern Awps were under permanent ice, wif gwaciers extending into much of de surrounding high country.[21]

In Norf America, de ice covered essentiawwy aww of Canada and extended roughwy to de Missouri and Ohio Rivers, and eastward to Manhattan. In addition to de warge Cordiwweran Ice Sheet in Canada and Montana, awpine gwaciers advanced and (in some wocations) ice caps covered much of de Rocky Mountains furder souf. Latitudinaw gradients were so sharp dat permafrost did not reach far souf of de ice sheets except at high ewevations. Gwaciers forced de earwy human popuwations who had originawwy migrated from nordeast Siberia into refugia, reshaping deir genetic variation by mutation and drift. This phenomenon estabwished de owder hapwogroups found among Native Americans, and water migrations are responsibwe for nordern Norf American hapwogroups.[22]

On de Iswand of Hawaii, geowogists have wong recognized deposits formed by gwaciers on Mauna Kea during recent ice ages. The watest work indicates dat deposits of dree gwaciaw episodes since 150,000 to 200,000 years ago are preserved on de vowcano. Gwaciaw moraines on de vowcano formed about 70,000 years ago and from about 40,000 to 13,000 years ago. If gwaciaw deposits were formed on Mauna Loa, dey have wong since been buried by younger wava fwows.[23]

During de Last Gwaciaw Maximum vawwey gwaciers in de soudern Andes (38–43° S) merged and descended from de Andes occupying wacustrine and marine basins where dey spread out forming warge piedmont gwacier wobes. Gwaciers extended about 7 km west of de modern Lwanqwihue Lake but not more dan 2 to 3 km souf of it. Nahuew Huapi Lake in Argentina was awso gwaciated by de same time.[24] Over most Chiwoé gwacier advance peaked in 26,000 yrs BP forming a wong norf-souf moraine system awong de eastern coast of Chiwoé Iswand (41.5–43° S). By dat time de gwaciation at de watitude of Chiwoé was of ice sheet type contrasting to de vawwey gwaciation found furder norf in Chiwe.[25]

Despite gwacier advances much of de area west of Lwanqwihue Lake was stiww ice-free during de Last Gwaciaw Maximum.[26][27][26] During de cowdest period of de Last Gwaciaw Maximum vegetation at dis wocation was dominated by Awpine herbs in wide open surfaces. The gwobaw warming dat fowwowed caused a swow change in vegetation towards a sparsewy distributed vegetation dominated by Nodofagus species.[26][27] Widin dis parkwand vegetation Magewwanic moorwand awternated wif Nodofagus forest, and as warming progressed even warm-cwimate trees begun to grow in de area. It is estimated dat de tree wine was depressed about 1000 m rewative to present day ewevations during de cowdest period, but it rose graduawwy untiw 19,300 yr BP. At dat time a cowd reversaw caused a repwacement of much of de arboreaw vegetation wif Magewwanic moorwand and Awpine species.[27]

Littwe is known about de extent of gwaciers during Last Gwaciaw Maximum norf of de Chiwean Lake District. To de norf, in de dry Andes of Centraw and de Last Gwaciaw Maximum is associated wif increased humidity and de verified advance of at weast some mountain gwaciers.[28]

^"Radiocarbon dates from de site at Dimwington wed Rose (1985) to designate dis area as de UK type site for de Late Devensian Chronozone or 'Dimwington' Stadiaw." Boston, Cware M. (2007) An examination of de Geochemicaw properties of wate devensian gwacigenic sediments in Eastern Engwand, Durham deses', Durham E-Theses Onwine: edeses.dur.ac.uk/2609

^"Gwaciers and Sea Levew". U.S. Geowogicaw Survey. U.S. Geowogicaw Survey, U.S. Department of de Interior. 30 May 2012. Archived from de originaw on 4 January 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurw= (hewp)